DFM EDITORIAL: We must remain united

Patriots Day may only be an official holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, but it’s a joyous occasion everywhere in New England -- groups from New Haven County joining those from elsewhere in the region at the Boston Marathon.

It was with that backdrop — sunny skies, and even a Red Sox victory that completed a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays — that three people were killed and more than 140 were injured Monday when two explosions went off in Boston’s Copley Square.

In an instant, one of New England’s happiest days turned to one of its saddest.

The attack came four months and a day after an infamous morning in Newtown from which Connecticut is still deeply shaken. What’s more, the marathon’s 26th mile was dedicated to the Newtown victims, and a contingent from Newtown was in the crowd not far from the explosions.

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The images of the carnage Monday — spectators being carted into ambulances after having lost limbs — will be impossible to forget.

Yet out of that horror came reminders, in many shapes and forms, of just how inspiring New Englanders can be when they put differences aside and rally behind one another.

Thousands of Bostonians entered their homes in a database of places marathoners could stay if they had loved ones in need of medical attention or were otherwise unable to get out of the city. First responders again performed astonishingly well in the face of unimaginable terror, swiftly and skillfully treating a massive quantity of patients and surely preventing the death toll from rising much higher.

The rhetoric in Washington, at least for a day, was largely worthy of the victims’ memories. Messages of unity emanated from politicians in both parties, and just about every official of consequence refrained from playing the kind of political blame game that people often find every excuse to play.

New England — and America — need it to stay that way.

It had become easy to forget, four months after Newtown, how united we were on that awful Friday morning in December. As gun control initiatives advanced in the Connecticut legislature and, in less robust forms, in Congress, the rhetoric — particularly among some of those opposing stricter gun laws — often grew nasty and irrational.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the Boston carnage and had said little Monday into early Tuesday about who may have perpetrated it and how it may have been carried out. Here’s to hoping the coming days, weeks and months will produce answers, and perhaps a few valuable lessons about keeping people safe.

And as the investigation continues, here’s to hoping the spirit of kindness and togetherness so prevalent across New England now doesn’t go away anytime soon.